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The conference opened with a session opened by Jim V. Rouse, conference chairman on "What the Hazardous Waste Treatment and Mineral Processing Industries can Learn from each Other". Several speakers concluded that the technologies and engineering requirements for both industries are very similar and that the experience accumulated in the mineral processing industry will prove most useful in optimizing costs and reducing the risk of failure in process selection and implementation of hazardous waste remediation operations.

Environmental topics addressed included sessions on predicting, reducing and treating acid mine drainage; treating effluents containing cyanide; managing arsenic and mercury and one on tailings management and reclamation. Alan G. Fricker of DSIR, New Zealand presented technology showing how cyanide recovery ahead of gold recovery from pulps or solutions can improve the overall economics of gold recovery including detoxification of effluents. Craig McKenzie described effective techniques that he has employed to detoxify large heap leaching wastes during decommissioning.

Kurt O'Bryan of Nordberg, Inc. presented an excellent case for Nordberg's new WaterFlush crushing systems.

In the session on refractory gold ore treatment, Bruno Sceresini presented new technology for treatment of copper-gold ores containing cyanide-soluble copper, and David Menne of Mennetech provided a checklist of options available for treatment of copper-gold ores.

Brian Green of MINTEK, Johannesburg provided an update on progress made in developing resin in pulp as a practical alternative to CIP for gold recovery. Two papers on carbon elution supported opposing viewpoints. Mike Blois of Van Eck & Lurie described the benefits of their continuous elution process whereas Bob Third from Western Australia argued the benefits of pressure Zadra elution over the AARL process. The latter claim is controversial and provoked considerable discussion.

Randol Gold Forum '91 also included discussion of BHP's new ion flotation process which is under development for recovery of gold from cyanide solutions and also for application in selective removal of nuisance species such as copper cyanide and/or mercury cyanide from gold cyanide solutions.

The programme included a good combination of very practical topics for the operator with several new technologies that are now being developed and demonstrated on a commercial scale for the first time.

Printed proceedings of Randol Gold Forum CAIRNS '91 will be ready for distribution in early July. Enquiries: Randol International Ltd., 21578 Mountsfield Drive, Golden, Colorado 80401. Fax: (303) 526-1650.

H. von Michaelis

World Gold '91 Conference Cairns, Australia, April 21-28, 1991

A period of readjustment is likely to follow Australia's decade-long gold boom, the World Gold '91 Conference in Cairns, Australia, was told.

The Conference is the second World Gold Conference staged jointly by The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and its U.S. counterpart, The Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration Inc. It attracted more than 500 delegates from 20 nations.

Mark Rayner, Finance Director of CRA Ltd., delivered the Keynote Address, warning that the long period of expansion of Australian gold mining would slow and production would decline in the next few years. Both the lower gold price and the exhaustion of some easily- recoverable surface deposits would contribute.

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He called for substantially increased effort in developing new recovery processes for the refractory ores that would come from deeper mines.

The broad-ranging Keynote Address was followed by some 35 addresses on metallurgical issues, with the Keynote in their field being T.P. Philip, who review the parameters dictating the issue of whether to mill or leach. There were a further 16 papers on geology and 17 on finance, infrastructure and environment.

The Keynote environment speech was from Harry Conger, Chairman and Chief Executive of Homestake Mining Company of the U.S. His theme was The Image of Mining in the 21st Century. David Tyrwhitt of Ashton Mining reviewed recent exploration successes in Australia and sought to determine both the patterns of explorations and the company structures that had proved most successful.

Australia's Governor General, The Hen. Bill Hayden, presented The Institute's 1990 awards at a Conference Dinner. Post-conference activities included visits to mines in Australia and Papua New Guinea.

Mrs. Judy Webber, Chief Executive Officer of The Aus.I.M.M., said the Conference was highly successful and predicted more international conferences would be jointly hosted by the S.M.E. and Aus.I.M.M.

Proceedings of the meeting are available from the AuslMM, price $80 (members), $120 (non-members).

AusIMM

93rd Annual General Meeting of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum Vancouver, Canada, April 28- May 2, 1991

The 93rd AGM of CIM was held at the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre. Over 2100 delegates and guests registered to participate in 43 technical sessions, a Manufacturers' Forum, Tradex-91 and to enjoy the beauty and splendour of Vancouver during 5 days of balmy weather and sunny skies.

Over 200 technical presentation were given by the Divisions of the Institute: Mineral Processing, Coal, Computer Applications, Geology, Human Resources, Industrial Minerals Maintenance and Engineering, Metal Mining, Metallurgy, Mineral Economics, Petroleum, Public Affairs and Rock Mechanics.

The theme of this year's meeting was "New Demands - New Goals" with a major emphasis on environmental issues. The Meeting commenced with the Plenary Session that included major addresses from the following dignitaries:

David W. Strangway, President, University of British Columbia - Mining and the Environment

Stephen Lewis, Executive Assistant to the Premier of Ontario - The Image of Mining and How to Improve It

Giacomo Capobianco, President and CEO, Coal Association of Canada - Meeting the World's New Demand with Coal

Adam Zimmerman, Chairman, Noranda Forest Inc. - Green to the Resource Industry

Dr. Strangway presented an overview of the unique multi-disciplinary approach being taken at UBC to environmental studies. He announced the establishment of two fully-endowed